


Fear of the Deep

by traptrixnepenthes



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard, Inazuma Eleven
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 03:11:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4374950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traptrixnepenthes/pseuds/traptrixnepenthes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>this is the niche crossover fanfiction no one but me ever wanted. potential link joker arc spoilers. reversed ina characters. it's everything you never knew you wanted</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear of the Deep

"Stand up, Vanguard!"

Kazemaru didn't want to be doing this fight. He wasn't scared or anything--he'd helped return any number of Reversed fighters to their senses--but he'd heard that several new, even more powerful fighters had been turned, and he didn't recognize the girl before him. She looked cold and icy, unlike most of the Reversed he'd fought before, and if it hadn't been for the red streaks like gashes down her cheeks, he wouldn't have thought her Reversed. "Angelic Star, Coral!"

Kazemaru put on a confident grin. "A pretty cute starter for someone like _you_. Starting Ripple, Alecs!"

The girl didn't respond in any other way than by raising her eyebrows. Sharp eyes flicked down to her hand, and she set a card down. "I ride, Fresh Star, Coral, and activate her effect."

A ride chain, like his own deck. It was somehow reassuring to know that despite everything else, they were at least equal on that level. "A ride chain? I thought all you Reversed could think about was power, and aren't those considered weaker?"

The girl snorted. "Why do you care? You already know the value of ride chains, considering that you're using one right now. Besides," she said, a grin like he'd seen on every other Reversed fighter splitting her face as she looked down at her cards with that obscene mix of reverence and adoration, her voice holding those same emotions as she finished, "no one else would understand how _powerful_ these cards are. Certainly not you, goody two-shoes."

"Reverse isn't true power." Kazemaru knew he was just parroting Endou's words, repeating what his friend had said to him when he'd broached the topic of it, and his free hand tugged at his hair nervously. Endou had been able to say them with the confidence to back them up, but Kazemaru's voice was wavering just slightly. "You have to work hard for it! Otherwise it isn't worth anything! I ride Silent Ripple, Sotirio, and call Battle Siren, Dorothea to rear-guard circle behind him. Attack!"

"No guard. And you clearly know nothing about power." The smile was gone, but she was still looking at her cards, not him. "Power is power. _Any_ power is power. And the real question here is can you, with your supposed true power, beat me?"

"I'm strong enough to beat any of you!"

"Are you?" The question hung in the air menacingly, and Kazemaru found that he couldn't answer. The girl across from him, with her icy blue eyes and icy blue hair, simply drew and gently placed another card on the Vanguard circle. "I ride Shiny Star, Coral, and call Mermaid Idol, Felucca, and Duo White Crystal, Ricca. I attack with my Vanguard!"

"No guard."

The match went back and forth for a few turns with no developments, and no talking. His opponent was focused solely on her cards, and he was sucked deep within his thoughts and playing automatically. Stand, draw, ride, call, attack, and all the while he thought back to the first time he'd seen one of his teammates fight one of the Reversed.

Kidou was the strategist of their team, and he was the only person in the whole world who could use his deck as flawlessly as he did. Oracle Think Tank's Magus cards were complicated enough on their own, and Kidou's playstyle meant he had to plan things out several turns in advance, and yet Kazemaru had never seen him misplay even a single time. Compared to Kazemaru's Aqua Force, Endou's Gold Paladins, or Gouenji's Kagero deck, Kidou was definitely the best fighter in terms of strategy.

Which is why when Kazemaru saw him lose and get infected by that power, he'd been a lot more scared than he wanted to ever admit. Endou had talked him down, told him that the power of Reverse wasn't as all-consuming as it seemed, and that had been that. Knowing the price of losing had made him stronger, and the fear had gone away, mostly.

And yet now, at the start of his opponent's fourth turn, as she smiled and pulled a card from her hand, the fear all came back in an icy rush. "In olden times, sirens with the most beautiful of voices would lure foolish sailors to their dens and drag them under the waves. Even the most peaceful mermaids are burdened with that past, until they let it liberate them! I ride Abyssal Star, Coral "Яeverse"!"

Her beautiful Vanguard, now dark and twisted, with that signature red-black loop backing her, presided ominously over the match, like an executioner in wait. Kazemaru clenched a fist, looking straight down--not at the field, not at his hand, not at anything. This fighter was _good_. After all her combos, he had five damage, two of his heal triggers had gone to waste, and he only had enough in his hand to guard this turn, with one perfect guard. She only had four damage, and her entire field was full. This didn't bode well.

"I activate Coral's effect, and pay the cost! I counterblast two, soulblast one, and...lock." A heavy cost. Kazemaru looked up, and his opponent caught his eye, and that wide, hungry smirk split her face again. "What can your so-called true power do now? Can you do _anything_ against me like this? All of my rear-guard units are returned to my hand, and for each one, Coral gets an additional 3000 power. And, if I returned four to my hand, I can put one card with 'Coral' in the name from my hand to my soul, and I draw two cards and my dear Vanguard gets +1 critical."

She laughed, a sharp, piercing noise that sent chills through him--he couldn't win. Not against _that_. She'd had uncanny luck the entire time, as though whatever supernatural force that had infected her had stacked her deck as well, and with that kind of luck, there'd be no way he'd win.

Kazemaru tore his gaze from the grinning girl and looked down to his hand, at the single copy of Blue Storm Battle Princess, Electra that could save him. His opponent was calling cards but he didn't care; all he could think about was whether or not he should play this card. Was trying to secure an extra turn worth it? Or should he just give up? If only he'd had more _power!_

A thought grabbed his mind, and he whispered a soft "Oh." He didn't have to win. Why had he ever considered winning in the first place? All the Reversed could talk about was the power they'd gotten. If he had that power, he'd be fine, right? Some of the Reversed had gone days without anyone realizing what had happened to them. Surely he could do the same, fight on the side of his comrades, to help save them all. That was fair, right? His teammates would surely be proud of him for getting enough power to help them and not be afraid.

"I attack Genovious with Abyssal Star!"

Habit made him reach for Electra, but his hand fell to his side again.

"No guard."


End file.
